EL DORADO — The Arkansas Women’s Business Center hosted the first annual Spring Market on Saturday at the South Arkansas Conference Center.
The Spring Market doors opened at 9 a.m. and brought together a hodge podge of vendors ranging from makeup consultants, to embroidery, to homemade soaps and even high-end jewelers under one roof so local consumers could browse the latest in spring trends and get a jump start on their Easter presents.
The business center is no stranger to hosting vendor-market events. It hosts the annual Mistletoe Market, a vendor market to kick off the holiday season
, by bringing all a consumer could want in both decor and gifts under one roof.
A new element that the business center added to their event in comparison to the Mistletoe Market were small business development workshops.
One workshop that was held was a basic product photography class. The workshop was hosted by the Diamond Agency’s creative coordinator, Brooke Burger. She gave a couple of tips on how to maximize the potential a product with photography in order to grow the online representation of a business.
The other workshop that was hosted was given by the president of The Riggins Group, John Riggins and it discussed how to finance a new business. He discussed how to secure funds through several different ways and the pros and cons of using each way, as well as what a potential new business owner should consider when trying to figure out how much they will need for start up costs.
Riggins also held free business counseling mini-sessions at the event so potential business owners could discuss start-up business ideas or existing business challenges with him.
The event also offered parents the chance to get their child’s photo taken with the Easter bunny. The photos were taken by Kristyn Riley Photography and it provided the family with five digital copies of their child’s edited photos for $15.
The Arkansas Women’s Business Center is a non profit organization that is funded in part by a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. They are apart of Winrock International, a recognized leader in U.S. and international development with a focus on social, agricultural and environmental issues.
The business center offers it services at no cost and operates off donations and matching funds. These donations assist the center to provide training and services for small business owners and entrepreneurs.
Haley Smith can be reached by email at [email protected]. Follow her on facebook and Twitter @hsmithEDNT.